I'm going to spend a voucher to buy a gift

[Kitmanic]

I received a very generous voucher when I left my last job, £250 at a store related to my main hobby.

As leaving presents go it was a good one, but I have struggled to spend it because the store they chose is more expensive than some suppliers, so I've always ended up buying elsewhere when I've looked there for kit, and because you have to spend the voucher in one go and I wouldn't usually spend £250?

A hobby friend is having a significant birthday and a big party. Other hobby friends have suggested clubbing together to buy a high end piece of equipment for him. This is an excellent idea. At £20 each we'll have £200, enough to get something we know he'd love but wouldn't buy for himself.

On offer, the cheapest we could get it is £175. At the store where my voucher is it's £203 (exactly the same thing).

I'm organising and am going to buy at the more expensive store, using my voucher, and collect the cash from everyone else.

I'm the only one who's done any research. Everyone knows what we're planning usually costs around £200. If I just take the £200 (including my £20) they'll be none the wiser, but what I'm planning is to take £175 for myself ie take the £25 "loss" because it's my choice to use this purchase to "liquidate" the voucher before it expires, and spend the other £25 on a card and some beers to to with the main gift.

Should I tell them all what I've done, or just tell them what their cash bought?

I wouldn't tell them... It makes no difference to them in reality as they donated the cash to buy the gift, which is what happened. How it was bought was irrelevant. I wouldn't even add the last £20 to the gift... Not necessary

It makes no difference to them at all and they don’t need to know. You’re doing nothing wrong.

Sounds like an excellent solution.

Nobody who has chipped in for the present will be in the slightest bit interested in the ins and outs of this. They are just glad someone else is organising it / putting the legwork in.

As an aside, what kind of gift voucher has to all be spent in one go ?

It's an Ecode for a what appears to be quite an old fashioned business. Their system can't cope with spending only part of it, apparently.

If you take it into the shop they'll issue a new voucher for the change, but they can't do that online.

As long as it doesn't affect potential exchange of item or similar for recipient

Use your voucher but don’t tell them.

Nothing wrong with this, as the recipient is receiving what the givers are paying for their cash to go to. I would keep quiet on the actual payment, as someone is likely to pull a CF and expect you to fully fund or pay the majority, or some other weird CF behaviour.

Don't forget to add some stuff to take it up to your £250 gift card value. If there are any accessories for the present you could add some extra value with those rather than use your cash for the beers.